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SPEECH 



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HON. WILLIAM T. AYERY, 



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OF TENNESSEE. 



IN REPLY TO 



HON. EMERSOK ETilE 




DELIVKRED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 31, 1861. 



The House having under consideration the report fiom the select committee of 
tbirty-lhree — Mr. AVERY said: 

Mr. Speaker: I had not intended to say one word during the whole course of 
this debate, conscious, as I was, tliat the period for protitable discussion and argu- 
ment on the part of tiie Representatives of the people of the South had passed, and 
the time for action liad come ; nor would I have violated that determination, did I 
not deem it a duty that i owe to myself, to my constituency, and to my State, to 
vindicate them from the false opinions that this House and the country might en- 
tei'tain concerning their position in the jiresent crisis of the Union, judging from 
some of the speeches which have been made upon this floor by those wlip claim to 
represent the seniiments of that people and that State. 1 wish to set my State right 
in this perilous controversy ; and in doing so, to reply to the extraordinary, and, I 
may say, unnatural speech made the other day by my colleague from the ninth con- 
gressional district of Tennessee, (Mr. Etueridge.) An oflicial report of that speech 
having not yet appeared in the Globe, the official organ of this House, I am indebt- 
ed to my colleague, to whom i applied this morning, for a copy in pamphlet form, 
at the same time stating to him that I expected to reply to it this evening, and de- 
sired his presence. 1 regiet very much not to see him in his seat. The New York 
Tribune, of the "i-tth of Januarj- — the morning after my colleague's speech — con- 
tains the following complimentary notice of it: 

"The able anil patriotic speech of Mr. Etheridge, of Tennessee, in the United States House of 
Representatives yesterday, was worthy of his high reputation, and cannot fail to command the gene- 
ral attention of the country. lie presents a firm and inflexible front to treason in any shape, and is 
for the Union, first and last, and at all hazards." 

I will also read from the Cincinnati Gazette, another Republican organ, a still 
more eulogistic notice : 

" Hon. Emerson Etheridge, of Tennessee, made a speech in the House of Representatives yes- 
terday, which, fur boldness, for power, for patriotism, and for eloquence, has not been excelled. 
The position of this man of the South is in striking contrast with that of the ilriveling demagogues 
who pretended to represent the Democracy of Ohio in convention at Columbus yesterday. We re- 
joice that it is in our power to send out in the same paper a rejwrt of the speech of Mr. Etheripge 
and the proceedings of the Democratic convention. The people will strike the difference and make 
up the verdict From this time the name of Hon. Emerson Etueridge, of Tennessee, will be 
warmly and favorably canvassed in connection with Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet." 

I have said, Mr. Speaker, the extraordinary and nnnatural speech of my col- 
league; and I think that I am warranted in thus designating a speech made by a 
Representative of a southern constituency upon this floor, which is thus laiuied and 
applauded by the chief organs of the Republican party. The gentleman began by 

Printed by Lemuel Towers, at fifty cents per hundred. 



(l/<5Ue/t, Ot^Q 



• 5" 

paying that if lie had a jury of good and lawful men, dnlj' impaneled, sworn, and 
charged to try tlte issue joined hetween llie North and the South, lie would, before 
that irn partial tribunal, submit this case without argument, coiitidcrit in the assur- 
ance that he. would receive a speedy and righteous verdict. 

My colleague may have fancied tliat he was engaged in his old vocation, defend- 
ing before a jury the otfendnrs of the law — pleading the cause of criminals at the 
bar of |)nblic justice. The extract from tlie Cincinnati Gazette, whicli I have just 
read, might suggest to a more uncharitable mind than mine that a contingent fee, 
in the shape of iiigh place in the Cabinet councils of Mr. Lincoln, sharpened the in- 
tellect and (quickened tlie powers of his defence. But I will not be thus uncharita- 
ble. I will say, however, that, in 1113- judgtnent, a Representative «f a southern 
constituency, born and nurtured upon southern soil, in a crisis like this, is far for- 
getful of his iState, her rights, her iriterests, and her honor, when he unblushingly 
stands forth, cheered on by thein, to champion the cause of the sworn enemies ol' 
liis section. 

The leading idea in my colleague's speech is, that the North has been guilty of no 
■wrong to justify the "extraordinary, unpardnnable, and indefensible" action on the 
part of the people of the South ; that the southern uiind is maddened and insane. 
And yet, he wants to adjourn this question over to this mad and ins-ane populace. 
AVho, but the people, in their sovereign capacity, have moved this mighty revolu- 
tion, even to tlie dismemberment of the Confederacy? Is it ))ossible that these 
States, having more than double the population of the original thirteen, are all 
madly driven to desjieration for nothing? Sir, I ask again, is it possible that the 
whole body of the South, the people of fifteen sovereign States, are madly bent, as 
my colleague says, "on believing a lie that they niay be damned V What thought 
Mr. Filltncjre about this thing — uiy colleague's ''model President?" In rej>lying to 
a large New York meeting, inforniing hitii that he had been appointed to proceed aa 
embassador to intercede with the South, he declined going, saying: 

" Wliat they want, (the southern people.) and wliat I want, is some assurance from the Repnlili- 
can party, now dominant at ttie Norlli, that they, or at least the conservative portion of them, are 
ready and willing to come forward and repeal all unconstitutional slave laws, live up to the com- 
promises of the Constitution, execute the laws of Congress honesily and faithfully, and treat our 
southern brethren as friends. When I can have any such relialile assurance as this to give, I will 
jro most clieerfidly and urge our southern l^retliren to follow our example, and restore harmony and 
fraternal affection between the North and tne South. 

" At present, our labors should be here. Let us put ourselves right, and then we can, with more 
confideuce and justice, appeal to them." 

Why, sir, even my colleague from the first district (Mr. Nelson) enumerates a 
catalogue of causes of fear which we justly have from the Keptiblican party; "the 
greatest of which," to use his own language, " is in the fact that prominent members 
of the Republican party have announced the doctrine upon the floor of the House 
of Representatives that the SupreiUM Court, as now constituted, is a partisan tribunal, 
and are doitig all they can to sap the jiublic confidence in the greatest judicial tribu- 
nal upon earth." 

Sir, every single resolution which has been passed by the most conservative peo- 
ple of the South, in their primaiy assemblies, laige and small, in their legislative 
bodies everywhere, proclaim that there have been aggressions; that there have 
been wrongs; and that those wrongs and aggressions must be righted, and that 
speedily, or they will declare themselves absolved from all allegiance to this Gov- 
ernment. Is it to be expected that those to whom conservative men all over the 
laud are appealing to come to tlie rescue of the country ; they alone who have 
perpetrated the wrong; they who alone can remedy it — is it to be expected that 
they will come forward and remedy those wrongs, when a Representative of south- 
ern constituents tells them theie have been none? I sa}', that everj" solitary reso- 
lution passed by the people of the South — I mean the Union people; I mean the 
most conservative people; I do not mean the disunionists or fire-eaters, but those 
who are considered of the most compromising school of southern rights — has declared 
that there are wrongs, and that those wrongs must be redressed. That, sir, is the 
sentiment of Tennessee. 

I have here the resolutions recently passed by the Legislature of Tennessee by an 
unprecedented majority; passed with only six dissenting votes in the House, and I 
believe five in the Senate. That body of one hundred members came fresh from 
their constituency. Let us see what the potential voice of Tennessee speaks in i-egard 
to the wrongs of the people of Tennessee ; and what they say must be put into the 
amended Constitution, or they, too, will fasten upon themselves this "unpardonable" 
fin of disunion. Here it is : 



" A declaratory araendment that African slaves, as held under the institutiona of the sl!l^■eholding 
Sf:ite3, shall he recoa:nized as property, and entitled to the statiis of other property in the States 
where slavery exists; in all places within tiie exclusive jiirisdicUon of Congress witliiii the slave 
States ; in all the Territories soutli of lUirty-six decrees thirty minutes; in the District of Coluinbia; 
in transit and whilst teniporig-ily sojourniiiic with the owner iii (he non-slaveholdint; Stales and 
Territories north of thirty-six degrees tliirly minutes; and when fugitives from llie owner in the 
several places above named, as well as in all places in the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress in the 
non-slaveholdiiis: States. 

"That in all the territory now owned, or which may be hereafter acquired by the United States 
south of the parallel of thirty-six desreea thirty minutes, African slavery shall be recoixiiized as ex- 
istin<£. and bo protected by all departments of the Federal and territorial governnienls; and in all 
north of that line, now owned or to be acquired, it shall not be recognized as existing; and when- 
ever States formed out of any of said territory south of said line, haviua; a pi>pulation equal to that 
of a coin;ressional ilislriet, shall apply for admission into the Unifin, the same shall be admitted as 
slave Stales; while States north of the line formed out of said territory, and having a population 
equal lo i cocirres^ional distiict, shall be admitted without slavery: but the States formed out of 
8ai<l territory, north and south, having been admitted as members of the Union, shall have all the 
powers over the institution of slavery possessed by the other States of the Union. 

"That slave properly shall be rendered secure in transit through, or while temporarily sojourning 
in non-slaveholding Slates or Territories, or in the District of Coiiimbia. 

" An amendtnent to the effect that all fugilives are to be deemed those offending the laws within 
the jurisdiction of the Slate, and whoescain!' iherKlrom to other States ; and that it is the duty of each 
Stale to suppress armed invasions of another State." 

These nre the chief |)oiiit8 contained in the resolutions of tlie Legislature of Ten- 
nessee, which tliey present as the ultitnattiin of that Stale. Do not these resolutions 
point to wroiitjs? aiui that the^'e wrongs must be riglited, and that speedilj*? They 
declare that the right of property in slaves mtist be recognized; that the right of 
transit into free States and Territoiies shall be adtnitted and protected; that the 
right of temporal-}' residence ind holding slaves in such States and Territories shall 
also be recognized bj' ti)e Constitntioii, and protected ; and that in all the territory 
of the United States south of 30° 80', now held and hereafter to be acijuircd, slavery 
shall be aeknowledged and protected by all departme itsof the Government. 

But what do they go on further and say ? 

"5. Rffioh'crl, That should a plan of adjustment satisfactory to the South not be acceded to by 
the requisite number of States to perfect aniendineids to the Constitution of the United States, it is 
the opinion (^f this (ieneral Asseinl)ly that tlie slaveholding States .should adopt for themselves the 
Constitution of tin; United Stales, v.ith such ainendmenis as may be satisfactory to the slaveholding 
States: and that they should invite into a Union with them all States of the N<)rth which are willing 
lo abide such amended Constitution and frame of Government ; severing at once all eonncclion.s 
with States refusing such rea.sonable guarantees to oar future safety ; such renewed eonilitions of 
Federal Union being first submitted for ratiHcation to conventions of all the Stales respectively." 

Not that this plan of adjustment must be satisfactory' to one eoratuunity; not to 
one State or any number of southern States; not alone to the Union men, but to the 
wiiole and entire South; and unless these "just and reasonable guarantee.s" are 
given, they are for disunion, and for forming a Union with no people or State that 
will not give them. 

But what says the Nashville Banner, the home organ of Mr. Bell, and the leading 
paper of my colleague's party — if he has a [)arty — in the State? This paper, in its 
issue of the 25th January, uses this significant language : 

"The resolutions adopted by the General Assembly, published in our paper a few days since, de- 
fine the position of Tennessee satisfactorily, as we believe, to the great mass of the people. They 
substantially adopt the Crittenden compromise as a basis of adjustment of the pending issues be- 
tween the North and Soutli ; ami Tei nessee will say to the people of the North, not in a spirit of 
blustering defiance and braggadocio, but firmly and calmly, and with a sincere and honest desire 
that this adjustment may be accepted — we demand nothing more — we will ciceept of nothing less. ''^ 

Here, sir, is what this newspaper, representing tlie most conservative element in 
Tennessee, says is the tiiicompromising position of that State witii regard to these 
resolutions, that "she dematids nothitig more, and will accept nothing less." 

fily colleague says he is ft>r adjourning this question over from this House to the 
people. Wlio, let me ask, have refused every such proposition? It is humiliating 
to southern men to have to say that every effort that lias been made for tlie adjust- 
ment of these difficulties has coirie from soutliern members. How have they been 
treated? Why, sir, every proposition tiiat has been made by the most conservative 
men in the House and Senate, by which this question is to be turned over from 
Congress to the people, has been trampled under foot, and indignantly spurned, by 
those to whose defence my colleague has come. There was a proposal made the 
other day — the most direct one I have heard of — to adjourn this question over to 
the people ; that every Representative upon this floor, of all parties, should resign 
his seat, to take effect on the 21st of February; that a new election should be 
ordered, to allow the people to speak between now and the 4th of March next. In 
twenty days public sentiment might have been expressed upon these questions; and 



then, wlien the new Congress came in, we would walk out. I never heard of my 
colleague seizing upon this mode of adjourning this question over to the people. 

But is it the tnaidy part, of nouthern ilepreaentatives to stand here in thnir places, 
and plead upon their bended knees as suppliants at the footstool of the Republican 
power, day by day? I, for one, am tired of making these appeals,- when the chief 
rulers of the party, Presidei.t, premier, press, and all, are daily and hourly thunder- 
ing in our ears that they have no conjpromises to make. 

Mr. KILOORE. Will the gentleman permit me to ask him a question ? The 
gentleman has given us the ultimatum of Tennessee, and has eoniplaitied continually 
of the wrongs of the Renubliean party and of the people of the North. I would 
ask the gentleman to specify those particular wrongs, so that we may r#ply to the 
chavge. 

-I ^^}'' -^VERY. For forty years, sir, we have been speoifving these char.g<-s, until, 
finding that specifying ddcs no gnod, we have beuome tired oi it. J will, however, 
satisfy the gentleman with some slight specifications presently. 

My colleague goes on to enumerate what, he calls the items in the bill vi jiidict- 
nieiit against the Repuylicaii party-, and prot-eed.s, senatim, to defend them from 
what he denominates false charges. Ke tirsb alludes to the personal liberty bills, 
and assumes to speak, rx ca,thedra, for the Republican party, iti saying that" these 
bills will all he repealed. He asserts that these hilU only exist in such iar otf States 
as Vermont, not accessible to fugitive slaves. If ray memory serves nie right, they 
have been passed in every single Republican State where there has not been either 
a Democratic Legislature or a Democratic Governor to veto their passage. In this 
very State of Vei-mont, iheir recent Legislature rejected by an overwiielming ma- 
jority a proposition to repeal these laws. But supposing there has been manifested 
a disposition, as in the State of Rhode Island, to repeal them. Has it not been 
brought about,, alone, bj the firm, unshaken and detert'nined action upon the part of 
these southern States, "the kingdom of South Carolina," as the gentleman sneer- 
ingly calls her, at the head? 

Mr. KILOORE. I ask the gentleman whether there has been a personal liberty 
bill jiassed in a single State siiice the existence of the Rej>ublican party? 

Mr. AVERY. I do not know when you date the birth of the Republican party. 
Mr. KILGORE. It commenced in 1854-'65. 

• Mr. AVERY. There have been, I presume; but it matters not when they were 
passed. 

Mr. KILGORE. Well, name the States. 

Mr. AVERY. I will do that directly. I say that where these bills have not been 
pn;ssed, it has been where there was a Democratic Legislature, or a Democratic 
Governor to veto them. My colleague says that none" were passed in the north- 
western States. If that is so, it was for the reason I have stated. He says there is 
jio personal liberty bill in the State of Ohio. I recollect that a Senator from Ohio 
(Mr. Wade) said, at the last session of Congress, on the floor of the American Senate, 
that the personal liberty bill had been stricken from the statute-book of Ohio it was 
true; but that whenever the Republican party came into power they would be re- 
enstamped upon the statute-books of the State. 

The gentleman asks if there has been any appeal made to repeal these bills. I 
had the honor to make a speech last session, in which I warned them upon these 
very questions. At the conclusion of that speech, after citing and arguing against 
these very bills, I said: 

" I think I have clearly established that the Eepulilican party is the only yiarty in the lanJ traitor- 
ous 10 the Constitution, and consequently disloyal to the Union ; that the founders of the Republic 
held no principles such as theirs; that the Bemocratie party is not agsrressive but defensive upon 
the qneetion of southern riarlits; that the Kepublican party alone is agafressive; that should this 
party succeed, that success would work the inevitable overthrow of ihe best Government fver given 
to man." * * ■► **** -1, 4, * ^^ 

'• I am for preserving this, the fairest fabric of human liberty. I am for upholding our institutions 
as they came from the hands of our fathers. I clierish them just as they gave them to us. Perish 
forever all the bright memories of the illustrious past, if they cannot be preserved unsullied ! I 
yield to no mortal man in devotion to this Union. Tennessee, the proud State of my nativity, among 
the first-born daughters, loves this Unien with deep devotion. But. sir, wiih this devotion there is 
mingled a sacred attachment to the Constitution. Her rights in the Confederac\ , her equality, and 
the perfect equality of all her people, she will guard with a jealous care." * * * "I warn you 
then, you men of the North— you who boa.«t your bunker Hill, and other battle-fields of the Eevolu- 
tion— I warn you to beware, to stop while yet it is time, and stay the hand that is laid upon the ark 
of our covenant." 



5 

Sir, tlioy did not 8tay the hand ; and tlie words then spoken have proven, ala?, 
but too [irophetic ! 

The next charge from which my colleague undertakes to defend the llepuhlican 
party is. that the people of the free States intend to abolish slavery where it exists 
in tlie States. In vindication of this charge he says: 

" No political party that ever assembled in convention in this country has given stron£;or guar.an- 
tecs agiiinst any desire or any power to interfere with slavery in the Stales of this Union. They did 
more than this— that whicli no other political parly in this country lias ever done. Apprehending 
the i)i)ssibilily of invasions similar to thut of Joha Brown, they denoiiacc in express terms all such 
raids ' as among the gravest of crimes.' " 

Whataresomeofthe.se guarantees to which my colleague alluded? Are they 
tlie guarantees indicated by tiie preamble and resolutions of the gentleman from 
Ohio (Mr. Blake) at the las' session^ ];et us see what they are: 

" Whereasthe chatt»»!izing of mankin-l and the iioldin'^ of persons as property are contrary to natu - 
r:il justice and the fuMdiiia;'iU:il principles of our political system, and are notoriously a reprouch to 
our country throusfhout tlic civilized world, .ind a serious hindrance to the progress of republican 
liberty among the nations of the earth: Tlicrefon!, 

^'■/iefio/eeil. That the Comniitlee on the Judiciary be, and the same are hereby, instructed to in- 
quire into the expediency of reporting a bill giving freedom to every human being, and iulerdicting 
slavery wherever Congress has the couslitulional power to legislate on the subject." 

I'l'ett}- strong guai'aiitees tiiese to protect slavery in the States; sworn to by the 
yery men who i-esponded to my colleague! "No, no! we do not mean l^p dislAirb 
slavery in the States." 

But, sir, I have still stronger evidence of the purposes of t!ie Republican p;'.rty to 
protect slavery in the States, in the District of Columbia, tfec- Wliile my colleague 
fci)m the first district (Mr. Nelson) was addressing the House the i.tiier day, he was 
interrupted b}^ the gentleman from Maine, (Mr. Morse,) who said that — 

"Mr. NEI.SON had read a paragraph from the message of the Governor of Tennessee, in which 
it was chargiid that the liepublican party intend to abolish slavery in the District of Coliind)ia, and 
the slave trade between the States; but that never, since the organization ot the Republican party, 
has any man, north or louth, ever heard a Uepublican take any such ground. It was never seen 
la any Kepublican platform or speech, and the Kepublican party do not want to do any such thing." 

Now, sir, I read from a speech made by Hon. Mr. Chase on the 11th of June, 1845. 
I believe that Mr. Chase is a member of the Republican party. I believe he is a 
prospective member of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet, It is so understood, at any rate. I 
ask this House to listen to what Mr. Chase said in this connection. On that occa- 
sion he said: 

"We are, therefore, resolutely, inflexibly, at all limes, and under all circumstances, hostile to the 
longer continuance of slaveholding in our land. We believe that its removal can be elTected peace- 
fully, constitutionally, without real injury to any, with the greatest benefit to all. We i)ropose to 
etfecl this by repealing all legislation and discontinuing all action in favor of slavery at home 
and abroad ; by prohibiting the practice of slaveholding in all places of exclusive national jurisdic- 
tion, in the District of Columbia, in American vessels upon the seas, in forts, arsenals, navy yards; 
by forbidding the employment of slaves upon any public work ; by adopting resolutions in Congress 
declaring that slaveholding in all the Stales created out of national Territories, U unconstitutional, 
and recommending to the others the immediate adoption of measures for its extinction within their 
respective limits; "and by electing and appointing to public station, such men, and only such men, 
as openly avow our principles, and will honestly curry out our measures." 

Another strong evidence that the Republican party will give "the strongest 
guarantees to protect slavery in the States." So you will see that the Governor of 
Tennessee was not so very far wrong when he made the declaration which was de- 
nied by the gentleman from Maine, and which denial was accepted by my colleague, 
(Mr. Nelson.) I am somewhat astonished that my colleague did not bring in the 
famous book, called the Helper book, signed by sixty members of this House 
of the Republican party, as another evidence of the determination of this party to 
protect slavery in the States, especially as that beok gave such a complimentary 
notice of him in its pages. These are some of the evidences of the disposition of 
this party to protect slavery in the States, that have called to its defence the able 
and ingenious counsel for the defendants. 

But, sir, my colleague goes ou further to defend that party, because he says the 
charges made against them concerning the execution of the fugitive slave law are 
untrue; and he goes on to say, in their defence, that that law has been faithfully 
executed. How has it been faithfuUv executed? It is true, that in many instances 
the law has been carried out, but it has been at the point of the bayonet, and at 
more cost to the master than the slave was worth, ai>d in spite of public sentiment 
at the North. 



6 

For the accommodation of the gentleman from Indiana, (Mr. Kiloore,) I will give 
the StutPs he called for awhile ago. In the following iStaten, officers and cilizeua 
are prohibited hy heavy penalty from aiding in the execution of the fugitive slave 
law: Miiine, Massachusetts, I'ennsylvania, New York, Vermont, Wisconsin, New 
Hainpsliire, Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. But tiiey say 
that Rhode Island has recently repealed her personal liberty bill. 

ilr. .TUNKIN. The gentleman from Tennessee must know that the decision made 
by the Supreme Court in the case of the Commonwealth against Piigg, induced the 
State of Pennsylvania, and many other States, to pi-ohibit their orticerj fiom taking 
any active piirt in the rendition of fugitive slaves. That case deciiled that Slate 
officers had no right to engage in such I'endition, and these personal liberty bills 
only carried out that decision — nothing more. 

Mr. AVERY. But was not the object of passing these bills to prevent the execu- 
tion of the fugitive slave law, which was passed in obedience to Uie Constitution? 

Mr JUNKIN. Wbj', sir. the decision I have alluded to w:is made before any fugi- 
tive law was passed. The Supreme Court Expressly decided that the State officers 
had nothing to do with the rendition of fugitive slaves. 

Mr. IlIGGS. Will the gentleman from Tennessee allow me to correct him? 

Mr. AVERY. I hope I will not be burdened with interruptions. Thei-e always 
has been a fugitive slave law. These statutes have been enacted for the purpose of 
nullifying both the old law, which was approved by Wasliingtitn, as well as the law 
of 1850. [ only instanced them in reply to my colleague's argument that the Re- 
pul)iic:in |>arty had done more in their platfoi-m to protect slavery in the States than 
any other party. I instanced them to show how this determination was manifested. 

Mr. RIGGS. With the permission of the gentleman from Tennessee, I desii-e to 
correct hi.ii in respect to New .Jersey haviiig a personal liberty bill. There is no 
such statute which has ever passed the Legislature of the Stat«. 

Mr. AVP^liY. I wae quoting from a report of the Virginia Legislature, made in 
n^ference to the Brown raid at nar])ei''s Kerry, not having had time to hunt up the 
laws, in wliich New Jersey is inclmled in the list. I had not heard it denied, and 
did not know that such laws do not e.\ist in New Jersey. 

Mv. RIGGS. They do not. 

Mr. AVERY. Then of course I am pleased to modify my statement so far as 
New Jersey is concerned. '^ 

Now, sir, my colleague goes on to argue that tlie charge is false against the Re- 
publican partj', that any member of that party seeks to establish the equality of 
the races 

Mr. KILGORE rose. 

Mr. AVERY. I cannot yield further. My time is too rapidly passing away. 
My colleague (Mr. Etuioridge) next said that the charge against the Republican 
party in regard to the equality of the races was false. Let us see what Mr. Lincoln 
says upon this subject, the President elect of the Republican party, authorized to 
speak, I suppose, for them. 

In a speech made by Mr. Lincoln, on the 6th of^May, 1842, at Cincinnati, on the 
occasion of the presentation of a silver pitcher to Mr. Chase, by some free negroes, 
as a token of their regard, Mr. Lincoln was present and said : 

" In wliat I have doni- t cannot claim to have acted from any iieculiar consiileration of tlie colored 
people as .a separate and distinct class in the eonHTiunity, but from the simple conviction that all 
the iudividuaU nf that c-las.s are members of the community, and, in virtue of tlieir manhood, en- 
titled to every oriniual right enjoyed by any other member. Wc IVi'l, therefore, that all legal dis- 
tinction between individuals of the same community, founded in auy such circumstances as color, 
origin, and the like, are hostile to the genius of our institutions, and incompulible with Ihe true 
history of An;erican liberty. Slavery and oppressiim must cease, or American liberty must perisli. 

" lu" V!as9achuselt3, and "in mi>st, if not all, the New England States, the colored man and the 
white are ab.solutely eijual before the law. 

'■In New York tlie colored man is restricted as to the right of suflfrage by a property qualification. 
In other respects the same equality prevails. 

" I embrace, with pleasure, this op|)ortunity of declaring my disapprobation of that clause of 
the Constitution which denies to a portion of the colored pe()])le the right of suffrage. 

" True Democracy makes no in(iuiry about the color of the skin, or place of nativity, or any other 
similar circumstances of conilition. I regard, therefore, the exclusion of the colored people as a 
body from the elective franchise as incompatible with true Democratic principles." 

What says Mr. Seward, who is to be the head of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet? In a 
speech made in the United Skates Senate, January 30, 1S50, he uses the foUowiog 
language: 



"1 am in favor of the eciualiiy of men-of all mon, whether ihey be ^^rn in one land or W m 
another. 1 am in favor ..1 receiving the whole. 1 acknowledge ^h^"" " ' '", ^' ^i" m^ hve " 
l-miilv forwiiom it is Ihe hiii-inets of slaL-smen and the buMiie.s8 ot man to labor cin<l «' ''^«- 
. I"- i' T. l!^,Jns will liu.l that to iheexlent that humanity bears the .emblance wh.eh ''^'V^ i;y«-;e^ 
npon n., by the . ar.a ot our Maker, it is my design and my purpose to abtjr and o l^nng ab ul hat 
..'intddv in the land in winch I live, an.l, as lar as may be, in all other lands, ^id go ng u m h s 
bi'o-ul r.riiioii.le I have no hesilati.m iu saving, that there is no distinction m my rosi-eel or alkction 
betv e men oi- one and and of another;" bJlwecn men of one clime and anntl-.er; between men of 
one race an/Lmoth^r; or between tncn of one color and another; no distinction "'^.^^ '" -,. l^^^^^i 
not uponin.titulionsof government, not upon the consent of society, but upon their mdixRlual 
and jiersonal merit." 

Tliese are the sentiments of the master spirits of the Republican party— their 
President, their first and their second Cabinet olHcer; and yet we are told uo such 
sentiments belong to the part^'. , 

My colleagtie, in tliis connection, referred to the past history of Tennessee, and 
declared tiiat,, from 1796 to 1SS5, tliat State has sanctioned and ueliberately ap- 
proved the princit.le of nesrro equality ; that Jackson had sanctioned and approved lU 
Mr Speaker it is true that, in the formation of the constitution of the State ot 
Tennessee in iV.tO in defining what should be the qualifications of voters, it con- 
fined this'qu"lifi^«tion to "ail free male citizens over the age o) twenty^one years; 
but no man, 1 presume, then thought of negro equality ot; negro sutiiage. Ihe 
word " white" wa^ left out in the formation of this constitution. Advantage, how- 
ever is taken of this omission to make the charge that negro equality once was the 
doctrine of the State. Sir, no man there ever thought of approving tl.e inlamous 
doctrine of negro equality. I repudiate and spurn it as the sentiment of that State 
now or ever. Does any man believe that Andrew Jackson was an advocate ot ne- 
gro enuality? And such a charge, too, to come from a Representative from ien- 
7.e=see It is true, they found that defect in the constitution of 1796 ; but when, m 
18o5 an opportunity was afforded for amendment, the word " white was instantly 
in-erted- and from that time it has been provided that the .lualificat.on of vo- 
ters shall be confined to all free white male citizens over the age of twenty-one. _ 
Mv coileauue went on to argue that every single, solitary toot of southern tern- 
torv had been acquired by norlherii treasure and northern votes; that they had 
willingly— yea, willingly— yielded to the South every demand that had been made 
What are the facts in regard to this question of the acquisition of territory and ot 
the admission of dave Slates into the Union ? Let the record speak. It shows t.iat 
every foot of slave territory has been acquired with the aid of a few northern Dem- 
ocrats who have stood by us ever in the hour of our peril, but against the great 
majority of northern votes. It shows that every slave State that has ever been ad- 
mitted into the Union has been admitted against the great majority ot northern 
votes against the elforts of the Republican party now in power, who assume to 
take possession of purse and sword, and adtninister this Government. My colleague 
«av8 lliat the South got tlie Missouri compromise, and they repealed it.' How did 
they get the Missoun compromise? Why, sir, it was taken as a poor boon to the 
South to prevent the North from saying that Missouri should only be admitted with 
slavery forever e.vchuled from her territory, against the will ot that people, as ex 
pressed in their constitution; aud when they refused faithtully even to carry out 
that it was repealed. The record shows that after the Missouri compromise was 
adopted, the very next session, when she presented herself with a slave constitution 
at tlie door of Congress for admission, sixty -one northern Representatives in this 
House voted for the repeal of that compromise, and for a proviso declaring that no 
slave should exist within the limits of the State of Missouri. 

And so it has been with regard to every slave State— Florida, Arkansas, and 
Texas My colleague savs that we are indebted to northern Representatives for the 
acquisition of all these territories, and he refers particularly to the Territory ot 
Louisiana. Does he not know that the greatest portion of that territory, slave ter- 
ritory as it all was when we acquired it, is to-day free, and in the hands of the Re- 
publicans?— this party planted upon the declaration, too, that not another toot of 
slave territory we shall ever have; upon the declaration that, in defiance ot the 
Supreme Court, we cannot carry our property in this common territoiy; with a 
President who declared in a speech at Chicago, July 10, 1858 : , 

"If I were in Conffrcss, and a vote should come up on a question whether slavery shoiild be pro- 
hibited in a new Territory, in spite of the Dre.l Scott decison, 1 would vote that it should." 

Sir I was asked just now to specify some of the charges against the Republican 
party Allow me to make some slight specification by substituting a short extract 
from a most elo(iueat aud powerful speedr of a southeru Senator the other day in 



parting forever from that once angust body. In speaking of this fanatical spirit of 
the North, which is the very brealh of this Republican party, he said : 

" It denied us Christian communion, because it could not endure what it styles the morai leprosy 
of slaveholding; it refused us permission to sojourn, or even to pass through the I'lorth, with our 
property ; it claimed freedom for the slave if brought by his master inio a mirlhern State ; it viola- 
ted the Constitution and treaties and laws of Congress, because desintied to protect that property; 
it refuseil us any sliare of lands acquired mainly by our diplomacy and blood and treasure; it re- 
fused our property any slielter or security beneath the flag of the common (Jovernment; it robbed 
us of our property, and refused to restore it; it refused to deliver criminals against our laws, who 
fled to the North with our property or our blood upon their hands; it threatened us, by solemn 
legislative acts, with ignominious punishment if we pursued our property into a northern Stale; 
it murdered southern men when seeking the recovery of their property on northern soil ; it invaded 
the borders of southern States, poisoned their wells, burnt their dwellings, and murdered their peo- 
ple; it denounced us by deliberate resulvci- of ])opular meetings, of party conventions, and of religi- 
ous and even legislative assemblies, as lial>iiual violators of (lie laws of God and the rights of hu- 
manity ; it exerted all the moral and ])liysical agencies that human ingenuity can devise or diaboli- 
cal malice can employ to heap odium and infamy upon us, and to make us a by- word of hissing and 
of scorn throughout the civilized world." 

Tlie gentieinaii says, " witli sword in one liand and torch in the other, he will 
go liome and figlit disunion." Tiie question of Union or disunion is not now for Ten- 
nessee to Settle. !Si.\ States, making a mighty empire, .''tretchiiig from the Atlantic 
to the Mississippi, are already out of the Union; before another week to be follow- 
ed by one more, with a domain almost as large as all tbe rest. The only question 
which will be left for Tennessee is, will she join these, her southern glorious sisters, 
or will she link her fortunes with the Republican North ? 

What does the gentleman mean b} his tui ch and sword, and following tlie flag of 
his country wherever it floats? Does he mean, sir, if that flag floated over hostile 
armies marching into the borders of Tennessee to subjugate the people of that or a 
sister State, that he would be found fighting under it? Sir, if this be his meaning, 
let me point him to the followiug resolutions, passed almost unanimously by his 
own State : 

" Rexolred hy the. Genera/ Ansembly of t/ie Sirife of Tennessee, That this General Assembly has 
heard with profound regret of the resolutions recently adopted by the State of New York, tendernig 
nun and money to the I'resident of the United States, to be used in coercing certain sovereign 
States of the South into obedience to the Federal Government. 

'■'■ Rcftolved, That this General Assembly receives the action of the Legislature of New York as 
the indication of a purpase upon the part of the people of that State to further complicate existing 
difficulties, by forcing the people of the South to the extremity of submission or resistance; and so 
regarding it, the Governor of the State of Tennessee is hereby requested to inform the Executive 
of the State of New York, that it is the opinion of this General Assembly that whenever the author- 
ities of that State shall send armed forces to the South for the purpose indicated in said resolutions, 
the people of Tennes.see, uniting with their brethren of the South, will, as one man, resist such inva- 
sion of the soil of the South at all hazards, and to the last extremity." 

;This, sir, is the spontaneous and patriotic voice of the proud freemen of Tennessee. 
Let me tell the gentleman, too, that the author of these resolutions is his own con- 
stituent, and a member of his own party. Can it be possible that, should the flag 
of his country be prostituted* to the base and despotic purpose of subjugating sov- 
ereign States, he would still be there? That under it he would lift a fratricidal hand 
•with "torch and sword?" Mj' first and highest allegiance is to my State; and I 
pledge now, that when this ensanguined war shall come, (which may God in His 
providence avert!) the brave men of Tennessee will rally to the standard of their 
State, and resist unto the death any invasion of the soil of the South, it matters not 
under whatsoever banner the invading foe may come. 



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